Hallstatt: Welcome to Life in the Slow Lane

HALLSTATT, AUSTRIA -- May 24, 2006

I arrive at the station to nothing but a 1-platform rail and a deserted station. You´d think it was the middle of the night by the state of things. But it is 10:00 AM, and Hallstatt´s one ferry is right now midway across the lake between the train station and the town, bringing its passengers aboard in the belly of its red wooden frame. I follow a small trail to the lake´s edge, where the other passengers and myself begin queueing for a spot on the ferry, meanwhile snapping photos left and right of the cloud-shrouded lakefront and tiny village beyond.

Gingerbread houses along the main street. I stash my backpack in some shrubs behind the hostel. A little note on the door says the landlord will be back at 4:00. But I have exploring to do. And my gut says my bag is safe here. There seems like the kind of town where people leave their parked bikes unchained, where children play in the streets, around the corner and down the street from mother´s watchful eye, and where many a night, doors are left unlocked and windows are opened to draw in the breeze that filters through the night air, breathing fresh mountain air into the bedrooms of soundly sleeping villagers.

Bratwurst and pommes frites for lunch. Pass swans on the lake. Fancy containers of Hallstatt salt line trinket shops. The famous salt mines are a 40-minute hike away. Back at the hostel, I fix up the Italian tortellini and sauce I´ve been carrying since my stay in Mennagio. I share a bottle of spumanti with Rob, a traveler who has also landed for the night at the Judenherberge Gastehaus. Spent a good few hours listening to his stories of Southeast Asia, where he just concluded three months of travel.

And then, spent several late hours in the chilly dorm room that I shared with no one but myself, bundled up in blankets and layers of clothing, reworking my travel plans, exploring the possibility of extending my Eastern Europe adventures.... I´m considering going overland through Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and then through Greece.... ambitious? Yes.... but I suppose that shouldn´t come as a surprise... for me, it´s second nature to try to bite off more than most people even want to think about chewing ;)

~Melanie